China's financial war chest goes shopping

China entered into an oil-for-loans accord with Brazil yesterday — its third such deal in three days — tapping the nation’s $1.95 trillion foreign-exchange reserves at a time when credit is scarce. In all, the world’s second-largest oil user will get about 600,000 barrels a day, equal to 17 percent of its imports last year, in return for providing $39 billion of loans….

China agreed on Feb. 17 to provide Russia with $25 billion of loans in return for 300,000 barrels a day of oil for 20 years.

Venezuela’s Petroleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA, will provide 200,000 barrels a day to the Asian country to pay down a $4 billion loan from China Development Bank. Venezuela’s oil is “at the service of China,” President Hugo Chavez said Feb. 18.

Chinalco, the Aluminum Corporation of China, plans to invest $30 billion into Australian mining giant Rio Tinto to back up its initial $11 billion stake made in 2007. Rio Tinto is three times the size of Chinalco.

China Minmetals placed and the $2.6 billion bid for troubled Australian mining company OZ Minerals. “If China wasn’t there, I don’t know where we would be … what’s the alternative?” said OZ Minerals chief executive Andrew Michelmore.

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Onto China: These types of strategic moves by China could be the start of the decline of the American empire. U.S. intelligence has stated that the greatest security threat right now is the economic and financial meltdown.
China, in this case, is Warren Buffet to our Bernie Madoff, i.e. willing and able to secure deals that others are not strong enough to make. The empire is wounded, to say the least.